whilst some celebrate, other nations, including india, say the deal falls far short of what is needed. officials in lebanon say more than 50 people have been killed in israeli air strikes on beirut and baalbek. i'm helena humphrey. glad you could join me. us presidentjoe biden has hailed a major climate finance deal as a "significant step" after days of negotiations, twists and turns at the cop29 conference in baku. 200 countries secured the last—minute agreement, which offers $300 billion per year to poorer nations for efforts to fight climate change. the talks were on the verge of collapse just hours earlier, when the group representing poorer nations walked out. they eventually returned to the negotiating table but were angered by an offer from wealthier nations that was far short of the $500

billion they wanted. talks at the summit in azerbaijan went on 32 hours longer than they were meant to. 0ur climate editorjustin rowlatt filed this report a few hours ago, following the efforts to make a deal in baku. these talks have been fraught from the start. just a few hours ago, it looked like any chance of an agreement had evaporated. representatives of dozens of the world's least developed countries stormed out of a key meeting. we've just walked out. we came here to this cop for a fair deal. we feel that we haven't been heard and there's a deal to be made and we are not being consulted. there was real anger. we need to hold the historic polluters accountable for the crisis they've caused and we cannot let the great escape that they are actually planning in baku. baku will be remembered as the place that betrayed the world.

excuse me. john, how's it going? poor countries demanded more cash. richer countries said they'd keep on talking. i'm hoping this is the storm before the calm. chuckles. are you confident that that might be the case? well, we're going to keep working, see whether we can pull it back together. but cash is hard to come by in developed countries like the uk, which face cost—of—living crises. currently, developed countries pay $100 billion a year. energy secretary ed miliband says the new offer of 300 billion x 2035 is generous, not when you take into account inflation, the poorer countries. this is what they always do — they break us at the last minute, you know? they push it and push it and push it until our negotiators leave, until we're tired, until we're delusional from not eating, from not sleeping.

it is after 2am now and we are all feeling tired. you may be wondering what all this talk about money has to do with actually tackling climate change. well, the hope is that that cash will be used to help developing countries power their growth with renewable energy, not fossilfuels. that should moderate emissions and, hopefully, slow climate change. the deal has had a mixed reception overall. india's representative at the summit says she absolutely objects to what she called an unfair agreement that excluded nations from the decision—making process. this document is nothing more than an optical illusion. this, in our opinion, will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face. therefore, we oppose the adoption of this document, we oppose the adoption of this argument, india opposes

the adoption of this document and please take note and regard of what we have just said from the floor of this room. we've also gotten reaction from un secretary—general antonio guterres, who says: there's been a similar reaction from uk energy secretary ed miliband, who we heard from injustin�*s report. he said the deal is not everything he hoped for, but it is a step forward. he's been speaking with the bbc about how the deal helps britons. we do think it's right to help poorer countries to go down the low carbon energy path. it's right because we're only 1% of global emissions in britain and we need other countries to tackle the problem, too, if we're going to keep future generations safe. and it's right also because this is the biggestjob

opportunity of the 21st century and for british companies, british exports, there are huge opportunities here if the rest world is moving down that road. 0ur climate reporter esme stallard is at the conference in baku, and told me more about what's included in the deal that's now been agreed. the main one we were looking at was this finance deal — effectively, how much money was going to travel from richer countries to poorer nations to help them prepare for climate change, and also to move away from fossil fuels. now, what is in this deal that just got agreed was $300 billion by 2035 — that was an increase on the 250 opening gambit, if you like, from richer nations earlier in the week. there's also other details in there for an aspirational goal of $1.3 trillion by the same date. how we're gonna get there, it's not quite clear. there's suggestions a lot of the money could come from the private sector. now, poorer nations say that's only a fair reflection of the demands or the needs that they have. you know, they say they are at

the forefront of climate change, they have a disproportionate burden and they've also contributed very little to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are the driver of climate change. now, despite what's been passed and the cheers that we heard erupt here, it wasn't quite all clean sailing — in fact, after the gavel went down, the indian representative — i'm just going to read it out to you on my phone — said she was absolutely furious. she said she felt like the whole deal was stage—managed, that essentially the cop president — which is represented by azerbaijan — just tried to push the deal through very quickly. i think they felt cornered, that time was running out here, and that theyjust had to agree to what was on the table. so, even though it might go down as a landmark agreement, it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone is happy. really interesting to get some of that initial reaction coming in, esme. i know it's perhaps difficult to quantify right now but do we have any idea, when it comes to climate science, for example, how meaningful that $300 billion per year would actually be? how much it can potentially change?

well, that $300 billion is split across effectively three areas. the first is what we call mitigation, so that is any effort that goes towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, so that could be, for example, switching out a coal power plant for a massive wind turbine project. it also goes towards adaptation, which is preparing countries for the worst impacts of climate change. now, this year is predicted to be the hottest on record. we are seeing time and time again extreme weather events, hurricanes battling the caribbean, for example, we've seen typhoons in asia — so it's very clear that money is needed on that front. but also, there's a suggestion that some of that money might go towards what's called loss and damage, which is effectively giving money to those countries already affected by climate change. now, we've heard reports from the likes of the un and others who've tried to assess how much money is needed and they say it is in the trillions so, really, that $300 billion is a kind of minimum floor that is required to

support these countries — which is potentially why, like i said, the indian representative felt so disappointed by what was finally agreed to today. for more reaction, i've been speaking to lisa sachs, director of the columbia center on sustainable investment. really some lukewarm responses, pretty mixed reaction, some anger, even, when it comes to this deal but what are your thoughts on it? yeah, no, i think the anger and the disappointment are exactly right. this is a weird process, to come up with a financing commitment, rather than asking what needs to be financed, what is it going to cost and how we will finance it, we have this bizarre adversarial negotiation over figures with developing countries putting out the very real costs of mitigation, adaptation and loss of damages and developing countries saying sorry, it isjust too high. and in the end, this commitment is really incredibly underwhelming — even within the contours of the agreement that recognises extraordinary need, so it is indeed deeply

disappointing. lisa, i'm sure — i mean, you spend a lot of time looking at the science on all of this, indicating that without meaningful action, there actually could even be a much bigger bill to pay for governments, so what do you think is holding countries back from more preventative absolutely first of all, the losses and damages are mounting every year. we're just facing a higher bill by failing to meaningfully address mitigation and building resilience into our economic systems now — that's absolutely true. what's holding them back — shortsightedness, politics, the incredible difficult geopolitical situation we're in right now that is diverting both attention and resources. that's the only thing that's holding us because otherwise, the needs are right in front of our face. and there was also in this text this aspirational target which was put out, $1.3 trillion. and it's understood that that would involve more private financing, possibly

including loans. so, how meaningful do you think that is for poorer nations? by the way, ijust — on my reading, it is even more incoherent than that, which is that the $300 billion target in and of itself also includes mobilising finance from private sources, which is bizarre to my mind because the 1.3 trillion is supposed to be collective of all public and private and the 300 billion should have just been the public commitment, but as i read it is inclusive of all types of public and private and alternative finance from developed countries. the other thing that is addressed is the extraordinary challenges that developing countries face in accessing affordable capital. the cost of capital in developing countries is extraordinarily high. much of this climate finance comes at market rate loans, which exacerbates the debt of developing countries. that is a bit acknowledged in the text but in no way solved. so these figures, the 1.3 trillion is probably the only

real number in this agreement because it is really the figure that's needed and the solutions are just woefully insufficient. i do want to ask — and i recognise that this is quite a difficult assessment to make — but when you look at the 300 billion a year that's been put out there and then you look at the level of warming that we are seeing and the limits and the efforts to keep it in within a limited range, i mean, what really does 300 billion actually do in terms of those targets? not nearly enough, and that's in the agreement itself. i believe it's article 3 lays out what the estimated costs of mitigation and adaptation are in countries alone. the estimates just a few articles before the commitment it is $1 trillion per year — and, by the way, that figure doesn't include the loss and damages. so there's no world in which this 300 billion is sufficient. arguably, i suppose the point that is being made is this is the rest have come

from developing countries and south sad cooperation but it is morally reprehensible and it is completely impractical because it's not where the capital is. so the short answer is the 300 billion is nowhere near the figures that we know are needed to actually address both to finance energy transition, to build resilience and then to address the mounting costs. lebanon's health ministry says 3,670 people have been killed in israeli attacks since october 2023 with at least 35 people killed saturday. the israeli military says it is targeting hezbollah facilities and fighters. in beirut, at least 20 people were killed and more than 60 others were injured in a strike which flattened an eight—storey residential building. and near the city of baalbek in the east, 15 others were killed, including a mother and herfour children. there has been no comment from the israeli military. hugo bachega reports from beirut. a crater in central beirut after a massive israeli air strike.

an attack that happened without warning at 4 o'clock in the morning, when many here were sleeping. hours later, a heavy smell of explosives was still in the air. bunker buster bombs were apparently used in the attack, and one eight—storey residential building collapsed. this is the site that was hit and there's still a massive operation happening here to remove the rubble. there's a heavy security presence as well. this attack was so powerful that it was heard and felt across the city. there has been no reaction from the israeli military. reports say this was an attempt to kill a senior hezbollah official, who is believed to have survived. it's a very horrible explosion happened. all of the window, the glasses are all over me and my wife and my children. my home now is a battlefield, if you see it. 0k, one person is hiding here. should they destroy three buildings with the people

are sleeping inside? across lebanon, israeli air strikes have intensified, despite new efforts for a ceasefire. explosion. israel calls it a strategy of negotiations under fire and says the attacks will continue. hugo bachega, bbc news, beirut. two ukrainian missiles and 27 drones were destroyed over the russian kursk region, according to local officials. it comes after a week of significant escalation in the war after the us and britain gave permission for their missiles to hit russian targets. on saturday, the french foreign minister said his country's missiles could be used by ukraine to attack targets inside russia at any time. jean—noel barrot told the bbc that when it came to defending ukraine, there could be no red lines. each time the russian army progresses by one square kilometre, the threat gets one square kilometre closer to europe.

here in the us, president—elect donald trump met nato secretary general mark rutte in florida. in a brief statement, the military alliance confirmed the meeting, saying the men discussed a range of global security issues facing the transatlantic alliance. the incoming us president has been critical of nato, complaining america pays too much towards the organisation's costs. rowan bridge has been looking into the meeting. it rowan bridge has been looking into the meeting.— into the meeting. it was literally _ into the meeting. it was literally a _ into the meeting. it was literally a three - into the meeting. it was| literally a three sentence statement released after the meeting and a single photo. i think there is an element of statecraft in all of this. nato is aware thatjoe biden is still the president and they don't want to annoy the white house too much or overshadow him, even though donald trump is the incoming president, he is the incoming president, he is not in the office now and i think there is an element of not wanting to annoy the current resident of the white house. and also, i think you know it is notable there is no

read out of what topics they discussed of where their positions work and i think that's because there are some well—known and stark dividing lines between nato and donald trump over ukraine policy, for example, where donald trump has been critical about the amount of aid going to ukraine and talked about being able to end the war in 2a hours without talking about how, and nato or mike rotto's stands which has been more supportive of nato members sending military aid to ukraine —— mark rutte. and a long—running source for donald trump over the funding of nato, he has been very critical of nato member states who, as he sees it, i'm not really pulling their weight and indeed, sees it, i'm not really pulling theirweightand indeed, on sees it, i'm not really pulling their weight and indeed, on the campaign trail, he talked about how he wouldn't support nato members who did not pay their way if they were attacked by russia, which is a sort of fundamental building block of the policy of nato that an attack on one state is an attack on one state is an attack on one state is an attack on all. meanwhile, president—elect trump tapped brooke rollins as his pick for agriculture secretary on saturday as he continues

to shape his cabinet. ms rollins served in mr trump's first term as the acting director of the domestic policy council. she has spent the last four years as the founder and ceo of the conservative america first policy institute think tank. however, she has little experience in agriculture policy. among trump's latest flurry of cabinet nominations — he tapped hedge fund manager scott bessent as treasury secretary. mr bessent had become a key economic adviser to mr trump and his team in recent months. he is a wall street financier who once worked for george soros, bringing a relatively conventional resume compared to the president—elect�*s other nominations. if confirmed by the senate, he will be responsible for turning the president—elect�*s campaign promises into economic policy, including the elimination of taxes on tips, placing more aggressive tariffs on us imports and cutting back federal regulations. for more on mr trump's second term cabinet, i've been speaking to brian schwartz, white house economic policy reporter at the wall street

journal. so, a hedge fund manager as treasury secretary — what kind of reaction i'll be seeing to that? to tell you the truth here, i think trump should be happy with this because i think wall street is going to be very excited about scott bessent being treasury secretary, as long as he gets confirmed and it seems like he will. he gets along well with many republicans in the senate, so i'm not expecting any problems there. so i feel like this is a wall street pick but it is also a pick that appeals donald trump's base. scott bessent has come forward and raved about donald trump's tariffs policy, for instance — something that appeals to many of trump's supporters. he is for making some of these tax cuts more permanent as they expire in 2025. so, you know, this is really the best scenario for trump, the markets and for wall street executives, many who are big fans of his, and it's going to be

fascinating to see how the confirmation plays out but i think overall, it's a pretty positive pick for trump. i just wonder whether you think there could be policy disagreements because we had seen a tweet from elon musk, for example, backing another candidate and calling mr bessent "the business as usual choice". well, that goes to something a bit different. i mean, that was related to a battle that took place between mr bessent and howard lutnick, as well as their allies, over who should be the pick to be treasury secretary and we detailed all of this on the wall street website. and we touched on the few that took place at mar—a—lago quite regularly — it's really simple to get out. lutnick also wanted to be treasury secretary and he is the trump transition co—chair and the nominee to be secretary but to be clear — before he was named to be the nominee, he was aiming for treasury, as was scott

the nominee, he was aiming for treasury, as was scott bessent, so there was this back and forth over who trump should pick as both of these people kind of went for this job. trump sat back and thought maybe there could be an alternative here, instead of either of these two men. so looked at somebody like mark rowan, and the poly global ceo, kevin warsh will be somebody who has been eyeing the fed, oncejerome powell's term ends in 2026, and eventually settled on scott. but the truth is is that they came after weeks of deliberation for trump and his team as to whether it should be scott bessent, maybe howard lutnick or possibly someone else. and ijust wonder what kind of brand of economic policy you'd expect them mr bessent to bring if were confined because, as you well know, some huge promises made on the campaign trailfrom donald trump when it comes to the economy. what could we see from bessent? from all reporting we've done, one of the reasons why scott bessent was selected is because he gave off the impression of trump and all these meetings that he was the guy was going to march in lockstep

with what trump wanted from economic policy side of things, so we go back to the tariffs. a variety of tariffs have been proposed by trump on the campaign trail, on chinese imports, on imports from around the world. it is something that bessent has supported and something we have to watch out for clearly as to how he handles that as the likely treasury secretary. it is the same story for tax cuts. something to keep in mind — the big battle that will come up in the next month or two, starting in 2025, is over those tax cuts that were expiring that were put into play when trump was first president, starting in 2016, so about is also something mr bessent is for. i also feel that he is close with elon musk, despite the fact that musk was supporting another contender for the job. so if, in fact, he is, you are going to see a lot of push by scott bessent, i believe, to cut back on government spending — something that musk has talked about regularly through this commission, this outside

advisor group that he runs — and so, that is something also to keep in mind. it's the tariffs, tax cuts, policy side. by bessent to cut spending here. some breaking news. state media injordan announcing a man has been shot dead and two police officers injured in an exchange officers injured in an exchange of fire at the israeli embassy in the capitol ofjordan, demand. according to the report, a man had funded a police patrol withjordanian police patrol with jordanian police, police patrol withjordanian police, dropping —— blocking the area around the embassy after the shops being heard nearby and witnesses saying ambulances rushed to the scene and the area is a frequent flashpoint for demonstrations against israel —— capitol iman. of course we will bring you more on the breaking story as we get it but moving on now. a man has died after a tree fell on his car near winchester in south east england as storm bert caused havoc

across much of the uk and ireland. strong winds, heavy rain and snow have left thousands without power and disrupted transportation. this was the scene in northwest ireland, where the storm caused a river to burst its banks. and in the uk, some areas are bracing for more heavy snow and high winds. dozens of flood warnings remained in place into saturday night. let's turn to some other important news around the world. families and teachers protested in valencia on saturday, demanding action over the schools damaged by last month's deadly floods. a teacher's union accused valencia's government of mishandling the disaster that left more than 220 people dead and damaged schools. the union says that the 30 schools that remain closed leave 13,000 children without a place to learn. the flooding was the country's worst natural disaster in decades. northern california has been battered by record rainfall over the last three days after an atmospheric storm brought small landslides, snow and flooding. rain and significant snow are expected through the weekend and another storm system may arrive in the coming week.

the atmospheric river followed a bomb cyclone that hit the pacific northwest, killing multiple people. pakistani authorities have sealed roads in the capital islamabad ahead of a planned protest by the party ofjailed former prime minister imran khan. it's the second time in recent months that authorities have imposed such measures. the pti has called on all sections of society to join the march, which is scheduled for sunday. pakistan's high court has ruled that the protest is unlawful. tennis star andy murray will coach his long—time former rival novak djokovic at the australian open in 2025. the pair will work together in the off—season in the run—up to the open, which takes place in january. it will be murray's first coaching role since retiring from the sport after a 19—year career, winning three grand slam championships.

the holiday season is always with us and in portugal, it is officially kicked off. these are pictures in lisbon of the traditional christmas tree lighting ceremony. a spectacular one at that. fireworks circled the tree as well as a light laser show. a big turnout with clouds getting into the holiday spirit. a slightly different tree has appeared in the uk, this is a 33 foot tall christmas tree made out of lego and has been installed outside of legoland windsor for the festive season and took expert builders almost 3000 hours to create the structure from more than 300,000 lego and tupelo blocks and is topped with an 80 kg lego star. i know what i will be making a little later. —— duplo. you're watching bbc news. more at the top of the hour. see you then. hello there. well, storm bert has given us some very severe weather

conditions right across the uk through the day on saturday — heavy snow, rain, strong gusty winds. potentially more disruption to come, too — it's not over yet. here are some of the strongest wind gusts through the day on saturday. higher wind gusts recorded across some mountainous regions, and it could be windier still for parts of the channel coast on sunday than it was on saturday. there's been a lot of rain around as well, a number of flood warnings in force. that number could well rise for the rest of the night and through the day on sunday. there's more rain to come, certainly more strong, gusty winds. here's the centre of the low moving very slowly northwards and eastwards, tight squeeze on the isobars. more snow melt across scotland tonight, and that could add to the flooding problems perhaps here with the rising temperatures into tomorrow morning, that milder—feeling air. still gales, particularly for exposed coasts, and a lot of heavy rain piling into south west england and wales. but look at the temperatures as we start off the day on sunday and compare that to how cold it was earlier on through the week, so a very mild start to the day. there's more rain across south west england, in through wales and stretching

up to yorkshire, humberside perhaps, moving southwards and eastwards through the day. some hazy sunshine, drier weather to the north of that, and more showers packing into western scotland and northern ireland. but very windy for western scotland, down through the northern isles and for northern ireland as well. gusts of wind here of up to 75 miles an hour. up to 65 for some of these channel coasts, too. but a very mild day — we could get to 17 celsius, perhaps, given any brightness in the far south east of england — that rain clearing away from here as we head into monday morning. still very windy towards the north. there'll be heavy, persistent outbreaks of rain still here. it is a cooler day across the board but certainly drier further south. still a few more showers out towards the west, perhaps. as we head through monday and into tuesday, the storm is moving off towards scandinavia, so we are going to see lighter winds across the board. in fact, the winds are coming in from the north, so it is going to be feeling cooler.

watch out on wednesday — there could be more rain in the south from another area of low pressure, pushing further northwards and eastwards, so generally cooler into the start of next week. there will be more sunshine around and lighter winds. watch out for some rain in the south through the middle of the week. bye— bye.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. in the last several hours, russia has invaded ukraine. translation: i have decided to conduct a special military operation. this is barbaric. a whole line of traffic for as far as the eye can see, trying to get out. putin is the aggressor. putin chose this war. putin's squalid venture should ultimately fail and be seen to fail.

glory to ukraine.